Timeline for As... as: what does the latter do?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 16, 2017 at 12:06 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | Amazing ... I'd never a thunk it. Hmm .... | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 11:54 | comment | added | Araucaria - Not here any more. | @StoneyB That might be an east/west pondian thingie, maybe? Here's some examples of "fast I could"s. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 11:24 | comment | added | Araucaria - Not here any more. | @StoneyB I agree but I think the internal architecture of the construction is analysable - maybe ;) | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 11:20 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | Hmm .. that's not a construction I've encountered, but that doesn't mean much. ... In any case, the point of my circumposition joke was that as...as is at bottom a construction which doesn't require or tolerate much analysis in terms of PoS. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 11:06 | comment | added | Araucaria - Not here any more. | @StoneyB That kinda assuming that markers are optional - which most aren't (in spite of that). What I mean by it's markery function is that it does something similar to the words that, to and for in comparable sentences: Too big for us to ../So big that .../Too difficult to .../that big that.../As fast as... Hmm. In the other direction to your example, we have "I did it as fast I could" | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 10:59 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | It seems to me that it is the "adverb" as which is the "marker" here. He is big as a barn, but not *He is as big a barn. | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 10:01 | comment | added | Araucaria - Not here any more. | @StoneyB I'm not sure about that (scratches head). The adverb is a deictic degree adverb like so (notice you could replace the first as with so there). The preposition introduces a phrase (or clause) which acts as a semantic benchmark to tell us the extent of the degree involved. So this construction is similar to he was that big that he couldn't fit in the car, where that he couldn't fit in the car is the index for our understanding the extent indicated by the adverb that. I'm not sure whether the prep is much more than a marker here. | |
| Mar 15, 2017 at 16:16 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | +1 BUT: I think the two ases comprise a circumposition, and it's the circumposition phrase which acts as an 'adverb'. :) | |
| Mar 15, 2017 at 13:41 | vote | accept | sdasd tont | ||
| Mar 15, 2017 at 13:32 | history | answered | Araucaria - Not here any more. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |